Conservative tech policy goal: ramp up IP enforcement

It's time to "dissolve the barrier" between physical and intellectual property …

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), who has already introduced a bill to gut the FCC's net neutrality rules, this morning issued a tech policy call to arms for her fellow conservatives. Atop her agenda: ramping up intellectual property rights and passing "Rogue Websites" legislation to "go after organized online criminals who steal from American creators and rights holders."

A keynote speaker at today's "State of the Net" conference in Washington, DC, Blackburn laid out a conservative approach to Internet regulation that largely boiled down to the idea that we shouldn't have any.

"Should the Internet be regulated in extraordinary ways, in a manner we have not applied to other markets?" she asked after blasting net neutrality. "Should we accept any regulation beyond the traditional protection of private property, enforcement of law, and protection of speech? Conservatives must not."

Instead, Blackburn laid out a three-part program for thinking through Internet issues, one based on a view of the Internet that apparently sees it as only good for delivering "consumable" intellectual property.

Proposition 1: The ascendant economic sector is the Creative Economy

Proposition 2: The primary commodity in this economy is intellectual property.

Proposition 3: The Creative Economy thrives online, in what is a unique, prosperous, and until recently free marketplace.

This is a strangely cramped view of the Internet, one beholden to a narrow set of interests (its emphasis on "extraordinary" net neutrality regulation also appears to ignore 200 years of US network regulation, from railroads to telegraphs to telephones). "The Creative Economy comprises all the stuff you consume online and the new ways you perform everyday tasks," Blackburn added; think Hulu and iPhones—Hollywood and consumer electronics.

It results in a view of tech policy that is all about increasing the protection for intellectual property with little concern for the important connectivity, civic participation, and access to knowledge the Internet also provides—think e-mail, the robust political debate at online blogs, and Wikipedia, none of which need "stronger" IP protections.

But to Blackburn, IP really is the key to the Internet, and government needs to get serious about protecting it. "Culturally, we all differentiate between material and intellectual property rights," Blackburn said. "For the Creative Economy to thrive, we need to dissolve the barrier and ensure intellectual property rights are as strictly enforced as material rights."

Once she passes her FCC-busting bill ("they may soon find that they stumbled into a Congressional hurricane," she says), Blackburn has a few more ideas for conservatives in the current Congress: patent reform "with strict deterrents to infringement," some compromise on orphan works, "passage of Rogue Website legislation," and privacy legislation that puts users in control.

It's unclear what's specifically "conservative" about these particulars: orphan works legislation has long been a staple of left-ish tech policy lobbying, while Blackburn's comments on privacy would appear to support the Federal Trade Commission's currently developing proposals for a "Do Not Track" system. In addition, the "Rogue Websites" legislation introduced last year had plenty of support from Democratic legislators, and patent reform has been a bipartisan issue for several years. Perhaps this is a sign that, despite some disagreement on first principles, when it comes to particular bills in the current Congress, the two main parties will have plenty to agree on.